Australian colonial history

1770 and all that from Inside Story

2020-04-29T17:07:18+10:00April 29th, 2020|

Hamish McDonald reports for Inside Story today, 29 April 2020, on the anniversary festival at Cook's landing place that had to be abandoned because of the coronavirus pandemic. Read the article at: https://insidestory.org.au/1770-and-all-that/ Replica of HMS Endeavour This year, the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's voyage on HMS [...]

Coronavirus forces Appin Massacre Memorial service 2020 online

2022-10-06T15:10:22+11:00April 20th, 2020|

On 17 April 1816, at least 14 Dharawal men, women and children died in the Appin Massacre in the former colony of New South Wales. The killings, ordered by the then Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, were perpetrated by the military against Aboriginal people in reprisal for [...]

The cause of Australia’s first pandemic is still a controversial mystery 231 years on

2020-03-29T18:41:05+11:00March 29th, 2020|

The first recorded pandemic in an Australian colony was the smallpox outbreak that decimated the Gadigal people around Sydney in April 1789. Ben Deacon, ABC News online, 29 March 2020 revisits this controversial event that many people today believe was a deliberate act against First Peoples: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-29/coronavirus-and-australias-first-pandemic-caused-by-smallpox/12099430 [...]

Push for frontier wars commemoration at Australian War Memorial

2022-10-05T15:50:45+11:00March 25th, 2020|

On 22 November 2019, when Dr Brendan Nelson was still Director of the Australian War Memorial (AWM), many organisations and members of the public called for Australia's 'frontier wars' to be recognised as part of the $500 million expansion of the AWM. Read more at: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6506929/support-for-frontier-wars-commemoration-in-awm-public-consultation/  It remains to [...]

Aboriginal scars from frontier wars, 18 March 2020

2022-10-02T08:29:27+11:00March 20th, 2020|

A long-running archaeology project, funded by the Australian Research Council, has been looking into what happened to Aboriginal men who were recruited to the Queensland Native Mounted Police, their involvement in 'the frontier wars' and the resultant trauma that impacted their lives. Read more about this story in EurekaAlert! [...]

Australian Frontier Conflicts: 1839 letter reveals violence in colonial Melbourne

2018-07-18T01:29:19+10:00July 18th, 2018|

WFE Liardet (1840), Tullamareena escaping from the first Melbourne gaol in 1838. State Library of Victoria collection. Australian Frontier Conflicts: The University of Melbourne's Dr Katherine Ellinghaus, brings to light an 1839 letter that reveals the frontier violence that happened around colonial Melbourne. Read more at: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/criss-cross-history-hidden-in-a-letter One story [...]

Revamp inspired by Yagan

2018-07-11T08:11:37+10:00July 11th, 2018|

The City of Albany in Western Australia is proposing to update its Alison Hartman Gardens that includes a statue of Mokare, who did much to inform colonists about the culture and beliefs of the local Noongar people. The revamp has been inspired by Yagan Square in the centre of Western [...]

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